Description
Gratitude Activities for Kids: Journal and Gratitude Challenge BUNDLE
This gratitude activities for kids bundle includes a gratitude challenge bulletin board and a journal that is perfect for any time of year but is particularly timely for the holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Here are the links for each of the individual products:
GRATITUDE CHALLENGE ACTIVITIES BULLETIN BOARD DESCRIPTION:
Research shows that expressing gratitude positively affects mood, peer relationships, and overall higher quality of life. Gratitude ignites the parasympathetic nervous system, which leads to feelings of calmness. Expressing gratitude releases dopamine and serotonin, resulting in a more pleasurable state of mind.
This file contains bulletin board letters that spell “GRATITUDE CHALLENGE” as well as letters to spell “RIP-N-RECOGNIZE“.
- Use these posters on a bulletin board, classroom display, counseling office, or common area in your school.
- Set a goal for students to reach, but issue a “challenge” for students to go above and beyond the recommended goal. Each challenge (poster) is worth TWO points. Students get one point for writing the letter and an additional point for sending or delivering the letter/note. Some posters DO REQUIRE students to research an address. NOTE: The second point on any challenge CANNOT be earned until the letter is dropped off at the post office or delivered in person.
- In these gratitude activities for kids you will find a challenge sheet for students to keep track of their points. You can structure the challenge in whatever way works best for your class. You can ask students to RIP-N-RECOGNIZE as an early finisher activity, a bell ringer activity, for a gratitude exercise in Social Studies, or as a writing activity during your ELA block.
- You may choose NOT to use the points as an incentive and instead teach students that expressing gratitude is an inherently rewarding experience.
- Each challenge sheet has enough space for five challenges. Simply offer copies of the same sheet for students who complete more than five letters/notes.
- Students should rip ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME. Their next challenge can’t be “ripped” until they finish the first challenge they chose. This will eliminate issues with students ripping too many challenges at a time, losing the little ripped notes, and “biting off more than they can chew.”
- There are 20 challenge options for students. Some challenges might not work for some students. Honor and respect a student’s choice NOT to do challenges that don’t work for their life circumstances. Requiring students to complete ALL the challenges will surely put some students in a vulnerable position, which is not the goal of this activity.
GRATITUDE JOURNAL DESCRIPTION:
These gratitude activities for kids are perfect for any time of year but are particularly timely for the holiday season during Thanksgiving or Christmas. You will find two gratitude journals in this file, gratitude worksheets, and printables.
This gratitude activities file contains the following:
- The Gratitude Journal with 24 pages of prompts (can be used as daily gratitude prompts during the holidays)
- Gratitude from A-to-Z (much like a blank dictionary) for students to fill in
- a hand full of worksheets or printables to help your students reflect on gratitude in their lives
Research on gratitude shows that keeping a gratitude journal positively affects overall mood. Gratitude ignites the parasympathetic nervous system, which leads to feelings of calmness. Expressing gratitude releases dopamine and serotonin, resulting in a more pleasurable state of mind.
NOTE: THIS FILE INCLUDES A DIGITAL DISTANCE LEARNING OPTION!
This product includes a digital option (as well as the no prep printable option). The instructions for utilizing the digital portion appear at the end of the packet.
Perfect for 1st-5th grade, students can use this daily journal and dictionary to reflect on gratitude in their own lives. This gratitude product also includes printable writing activities fro kids.
This PDF file contains over 140 pages + Google Slides™.
Teresa A –
I loved doing this weekly writing with my students. A gratitude focus helps keep everyone focused on the good in their life!
Elena DePaolo –
This is a great resource to have students start thinking about all there is to be thankful for in life.